"You're going to need big saves inside of every game. You know the great saves like that, usually lead to victories for you."

Tyler Myers and Thomas Vanek staked the Sabres to a 2-0 lead, and Buffalo won its second in a row since an 0-3-1 skid. Jason Pominville and Derek Roy had two assists for Buffalo (26-27-7), which jumped a point ahead of the Islanders (25-27-8) in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Sabres are now six points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Myers says the key moving forward is maintaining this level of intensity and consistency.

"That's the way we have to play if we want to make any kind of push for a playoff position. I thought we did a really good job of carrying it over from the Pitt game and it's a big win."

Frans Nielsen scored with 5:08 left to snap the Islanders' goal drought at 106 minutes, 51 seconds, a day after New York lost 6-0 at home to Ottawa. The inconsistent Islanders are 4-5-1 in their past 10 games.